Kainan High

Kainan University Affiliated High School basketball team has won the Kanagawa Inter-High Tournament for 17 years running, and are known as the "Kings of Kanagawa.". However, Kainan lost in the semifinals in the previous National Championship against the defending champion, Sannoh by 30 points. At the end of the manga, they finished as # 2 in the National High School Tournament, losing the final match, supposedly to Daiei Gakuen.

Contents

Offensive and Defensive style

Their entire team is composed of elite players and demonstrates incredible stamina and defensive ability. Without a doubt the team goes where Maki goes. He has Magic Johnson like abilites, has the power of a power forward but the dribble technique and passing ability of a point guard. He one of the best at breaking down the opponent's defense which creates good positions for his teammates such as Soichiro Jin, Kiyota Nobunaga and Miyawasu Yoshinori. If Maki is guarded well, the ball will go outside to long-range shooter Jin who has a very accurate shot. There is more than one possibility to score and that makes Kainan strong.

Weakness

They do not have a Center that is on par with Akagi, Uozumi or Hanagata. Since the team is composed of elite players, this has not been a major problem. However the team's average length could be considered small. Both forwards aren't taller than 185cm. Kiyota might be able to jump very high, but still he will be easier to guard than a 185+ cm guy. The offense lives and dies with Maki.The center isn't very special and the forwards aren't very good scorers. Jin is a ridiculous shooter but not a scorer as he's only able to do open and non moving three-point shots as soon he was put against a capable on-ball defender such as Sakuragi he was blocked numerours times and completely taken out of the game.

The team is very depending on Maki's performance, when he's guarded very well, the rest of the team isn't really able to create chances which was evident in the game vs Shohoku, when Anzai decided to use four players to guard the strong Maki and Sakuragi to guard Jin which completely nullified Kainain's offense.

Training style

Although the players aren't known for their talent, they are very capable by the hard trainings they have gone through. What they lack in talent, they compensate with physical power. They have been trained on the physical shape very well, which you can clearly see in the district finals. Ryonan is trained as well, but still Kainan was physically stronger.